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A document management system (DMS) is a computer system (or set of computer
programs) used to track and store electronic documents and/or images of paper
documents. The term has some overlap with the concepts of content management systems.
It is often viewed as a component of enterprise content
management (ECM) systems and related to digital asset management, document imaging, workflow systems and records
management systems.
Overview
In the broadest sense, document management systems can range
from a shoebox all the way to an enterprise content management
system. There are several common issues that are involved in
managing documents, whether the system is an informal, ad-hoc,
paper-based method for one person or if it is a formal, structured,
computer enhanced system for many people across multiple offices.
Most methods for managing documents address the following
areas:
| Location |
Where will documents be stored? Where will people need to go to
access documents? Physical journeys to filing cabinets and file rooms are
analogous to the onscreen navigation required to use a document
management system. |
| Filing |
How will documents be filed? What methods will be used to
organize or index the documents to assist in later retrieval?
Document management systems will typically use a database to store metadata about documents and
a File System to store the actual physical
files. |
| Retrieval |
How will documents be found? Typically, retrieval encompasses
both browsing through documents and searching for specific
information. What kind of information about documents are indexed
for rapid retrieval? |
| Security |
How will documents be kept secure? How will unauthorized
personnel be prevented from reading, modifying or destroying
documents? |
| Disaster recovery |
How can documents be recovered in case of destruction from
fires, floods or natural disasters? |
| Retention
period |
How long should documents be kept, i.e. retained? As
organizations grow and regulations increase, informal guidelines
for keeping various types of documents give way to more formal
records management practices. |
| Archiving |
How can documents be preserved for future readability? |
| Distribution |
How can documents be available to the people that need
them? |
| Workflow |
If documents need to pass from one person to another, what are
the rules for how their work should flow? |
| Creation |
How are documents created? This question becomes important when
multiple people need to collaborate, and the logistics of version
control and authoring arise. |
| Authenticity |
Is there a way to vouch for the authenticity of a
document ? |
|
| Traceability |
When, where and by whom are documents created, modified,
published and stored [1]? |
History
Beginning in the 1980s, a number of vendors began developing
systems to manage paper-based documents. These systems managed
paper documents, which included not only printed and published
documents, but also photos, prints, etc.
Later, a second style of system was developed, to manage
electronic documents, i.e., all those documents, or files, created
on computers, and often stored on local user file systems. The
earliest electronic document management (EDM) systems were either
developed to manage proprietary file types, or a limited number of
file formats. Many of these systems were later referred to as
document imaging systems, because the main capabilities were
capture, storage, indexing and retrieval of image file formats.
These systems enabled an organization to capture faxes and forms,
save copies of the documents as images, and store the image files
in the repository for security and quick retrieval (retrieval was
possible because the system handled the extraction of the text from
the document as it was captured, and the text indexer provided text
retrieval capabilities).
EDM systems evolved to where the system was able to manage any
type of file format that could be stored on the network. The
applications grew to encompass electronic documents, collaboration
tools, security, and auditing capabilities.
Components
Document management systems commonly provide storage,
versioning, metadata, security, as well as indexing and retrieval
capabilities. Here is a description of these components:
- Metadata
- Metadata is typically stored for each document. Metadata may,
for example, include the date the document was stored and the
identity of the user storing it. The DMS may also extract metadata
from the document automatically or prompt the user to add metadata.
Some systems also use optical character
recognition on scanned images, or perform text extraction on
electronic documents. The resulting extracted text can be used to
assist users in locating documents by identifying probable keywords
or providing for full text search capability, or can be used on its
own. Extracted text can also be stored as a component of metadata,
stored with the image, or separately as a source for searching
document collections.
- Integration
- Many document management systems attempt to integrate document
management directly into other applications, so that users may
retrieve existing documents directly from the document management
system repository, make changes, and save the changed document back
to the repository as a new version, all without leaving the
application. Such integration is commonly available for office suites and e-mail or collaboration/groupware
software. Integration often uses open standards such as ODMA, LDAP, WebDAV and SOAP to allow integration with other software and
compliance with internal controls.
- Capture
- Images of paper documents using scanners or multifunction printers. Optical
character recognition (OCR) software (see Expervision, Abbyy) is often
used, whether integrated into the hardware or as stand-alone
software, in order to convert digital images into machine readable
text.
- Indexing
- Track electronic documents. Indexing may be as simple as
keeping track of unique document identifiers; but often it takes a
more complex form, providing classification through the documents'
metadata or even through word indexes extracted from the documents'
contents. Indexing exists mainly to support retrieval. One area of
critical importance for rapid retrieval is the creation of an index
topology.
- Storage
- Store electronic documents. Storage of the documents often
includes management of those same documents; where they are stored,
for how long, migration of the documents from one storage media to
another (hierarchical storage
management) and eventual document destruction.
- Retrieval
- Retrieve the electronic documents from the storage. Although
the notion of retrieving a particular document is simple, retrieval
in the electronic context can be quite complex and powerful. Simple
retrieval of individual documents can be supported by allowing the
user to specify the unique document identifier, and having the
system use the basic index (or a non-indexed query on its data
store) to retrieve the document. More flexible retrieval allows the
user to specify partial search terms involving the document
identifier and/or parts of the expected metadata. This would
typically return a list of documents which match the user's search
terms. Some systems provide the capability to specify a Boolean
expression containing multiple keywords or example phrases
expected to exist within the documents' contents. The retrieval for
this kind of query may be supported by previously-built indexes, or
may perform more time-consuming searches through the documents'
contents to return a list of the potentially relevant documents.
See also Document retrieval.
- Distribution
- A published document for distribution has to be in a format
that can not be easily altered. As a common practice in law
regulated industries, an original master copy of the document is
usually never used for distribution other than archiving. If a
document is to be distributed electronically in a regulatory
environment, then the equipment tasking the job has to be quality
endorsed AND validated. Similarly quality endorsed electronic
distribution carriers have to be used. This approach applies to
both of the systems by which the document is to be inter-exchanged,
if the integrity of the document is highly in demand.
- Security
- Document security is vital in many document management
applications. Compliance requirements for certain documents can be
quite complex depending on the type of documents. For instance the
Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
requirements dictate that medical documents have certain security
requirements. Some document management systems have a rights
management module that allows an administrator to give access to
documents based on type to only certain people or groups of
people.
- Workflow
- Workflow is a complex problem and some document management
systems have a built in workflow module. There are different types
of workflow. Usage depends on the environment the electronic
document management system (EDMS) is applied to. Manual workflow
requires a user to view the document and decide who to send it to.
Rules-based workflow allows an administrator to create a rule that
dictates the flow of the document through an organization: for
instance, an invoice passes through an approval process and then is
routed to the accounts payable department. Dynamic rules allow for
branches to be created in a workflow process. A simple example
would be to enter an invoice amount and if the amount is lower than
a certain set amount, it follows different routes through the
organization.
- Collaboration
- Collaboration should be inherent in an EDMS. In its basic form,
a collaborative EDMS should allow documents to be retrieved and
worked on by an authorized user. Access should be blocked to other
users while work is being performed on the document. Other advanced
forms of collaboration allow multiple users to view and modify (or
markup) a document at the same time in a collaboration session. The
resulting document should be viewable in its final shape, while
also storing the markups done by each individual user during the
collaboration session.
- Versioning
- Versioning is a process by which documents are checked in or
out of the document management system, allowing users to retrieve
previous versions and to continue work from a selected point.
Versioning is useful for documents that change over time and
require updating, but it may be necessary to go back to or
reference a previous copy.
- Searching
- Finds documents and folders using template attributes or full
text search. Documents can be searched using various attributes and
document content
- Publishing
- Publishing a document is sometimes tedious and involves the
procedures of proofreading, peer or public reviewing, authorizing,
printing and approving etc. Those steps ensure prudence and logic thinking. Any careless
handling may result in the inaccuracy of the document and therefore
mislead or upset its users and readers. In law regulated
industries, some of the procedures have to be completed as
evidenced by their corresponding signatures and the date(s) on
which the document was signed. Refer to the ISO
divisions of ICS 01.140.40 and 35.240.30 for further
information.[2][3]
- The published document should be in a format that is not easily
altered without a specific knowledge or tools, and yet it is
read-only or portable.[4]
Standardization
Many industry associations publish their own lists of particular
document control standards that are used in their particular field.
The following is the list of some of the relevant ISO documents.
Divisions ICS 01.140.10 and 01.140.20.[5][6] The
ISO has also published a series of standards regarding the technical documentation,
covered by the division of 01.110.[7]
- ISO 2709:1996 Information and documentation—Format for
information exchange
- ISO 15836:2009 which replaces ISO 15836:2003 Information and
documentation — The Dublin Core metadata element set
- ISO 21127:2006 Information and documentation—A reference
ontology for the interchange of cultural heritage information
- ISO 23950:1998 Information and documentation—Information
retrieval (Z39.50) — Application service definition and protocol
specification.
- ISO/CD 10244 Document management—Business process/workflow
baselining and analysis associated with EDMS technologies
- ISO
32000 — portable document format
See also
References
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